Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has in place to support housing associations in retrofitting their older housing stock with energy efficient measures.

In the Charter for Social Housing Residents – Social Housing White Paper published on 17 November 2020, we committed to review the Decent Homes Standard. We will consider if it should be updated, including how it can better support the decarbonisation and energy efficiency of social homes.

At the Chancellor’s summer economic update, the Government announced a £50 million demonstrator project to start the decarbonisation of social housing during 2020/21. At the Spending Review 2020, The Chancellor announced £60 million of further funding for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, to continue upgrading the least efficient social housing.

The Prime Minister announced an extension to the Green Homes Grant which social landlords are eligible to bid for. This will fund up to two thirds of the cost of hiring tradespeople to upgrade the energy performance of homes.